1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to glass forming, and particularly to a method and apparatus for forming articles possessing an aperture from sheet glass.
2. Description of Related Art
In the glass industry diamond tooling, i.e., diamond drill, is ordinarily employed in the cutting of holes or apertures in glass articles, usually in a post-formation or secondary process. Alternatively, after the glass article is formed it is reheated and a desired shaped hole is punched, again in a secondary process. These processes, however, are labor intensive and time consuming in addition to being costly, all which translate into increased costs with the end user.
Automated cutting or trimming techniques for glass, however, are known in the industry. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,193,367 (Giffen), 3,528,791 (Giffen), 4,361,429 (Anderson et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,429 (Rajnik) disclose trimming of articles formed from sheet glass during a hot-forming operation. The trimming methods disclosed therein are directed at separating a formed article from the excess hot glass cullet which surrounds the periphery of an article-forming mold. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,193,367 (Giffen), 3,528,791 (Giffen) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,429 (Anderson et al.) disclose trimming the formed article by applying a shearing load to sever the surrounding glass. Whereas, U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,429 (Rajnik) discloses trimming the glass cullet by pressing a thin spot in the glass between a blunt edge trimmer and a flat surface in the mold.
None of these disclosures, however, teach the forming of regular and irregular holes or apertures in a newly formed glass article during the hot-forming process. Therefore, there exists the need for a simple, cost-effective apparatus and method for cutting or trimming glass to form regular and irregular shaped apertures in a newly formed glass article during conventional hot-glass molding and pressing process.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for forming apertures in glass articles during the molding and pressing process and not in a post-formation operation.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for trimming regular and irregular apertures in glass articles that provides reliable trimming and pristine trimmed edges.